Dead Girl's Vest
by Jacquelina-Comm
Summary: Sequel to Curse of the Teenage Pirate. Laverne and Lawrence are no longer cursed, but what interest had Tia Dhalma got in the future Mrs. Martin? No fem-slash.
1. Laverne on the Black Pearl

Disclaimer: I own only Laverne, Lawrence and Tom.

* * *

- Laverne.

Hi. Remember me? If not, my name is Laverne "Verne" Audrium. I'm a 21st century girl who got sucked into Curse of the Black Pearl and who is now a crewmember aboard that titular ship. My brother, Tom, came got sucked into the movie too (though he spent almost all of it from the navy's point of view), but he fell in love with Anna-Maria and left to be her first mate aboard the _Razorblade_.

I also fell in love. It was with a young man named Lawrence Martin, with whom a shared a curse (no, not _that_ curse) during the first movie. We had broken the curse by falling in love (a bit of a cliche, but we aren't complaining), and Lawrence was now back in Port Royal, keeping an eye on Will and Elizabeth, but I was pretty sure we would meet up again on Cannibal Island.

Which was why I was the happiest person there when Jack decided to go into the Turkish prison. Of course, I couldn't let that happiness show on my face, or else I would very likely get accused of mutiny, but it was very difficult.

What was also difficult was sitting around and waiting for Jack to thrown out with the coffins. I even resorted to scrubbing the floors to pass the time, though I had long ago found my place in the galley. When there were no more floors to scrub, I started polishing the silverware until Gibbs stopped me because I making him nervous. I didn't even know I was a compulsive cleaner until that day.

Now I sat on the deck, watching the prison and itching to do something, anything. Why didn't he come out already? I was about to go back to polishing the spoons, when I spotted the men throwing coffins over the side. It took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to do a victory dance right then and there.

I nudged Gibbs and pointed at a coffin that I knew contained a very much alive Captain Jack Sparrow. "Does that coffin seem a little... different to you?" I asked tactfully.

Gibbs stared at it, obviously trying to tell how it was different, and nearly jumped out of his skin when Jack's gun shot a crow off the lid. I laughed so hard that I had to sit down. You know those videos where you get people really focused on it, then have an image pop up and scare them? Well, I just pulled the 17th century version of that on Mr. Joshamee Gibbs.

Gibbs glared at me, but held off on saying anything since he had to go help Jack onto the ship. He held out his hand for Jack to take, but instead got the skeletal leg that said captain had been using as an oar.

"That's nasty." I commented.

"Not quite according to plan." Gibbs said, looking with distaste at the disgusting object.

"Complications arose, ensued and were overcome." Jack said.

"They always do." I said, and got handed the skeleton leg. With a hiss of disgust, I threw it over the side. It was supposed to be Mr. Cotton who got that nasty thing, not me! "Let's stop kidding around Captain Crunch." I said irritably. "Show us what you got!"

Jack pulled out what was either a very floppy piece of parchment, or a piece of leathery cloth. The crew did not look happy with him.

"Captain, I think the crew, that includes me and Verne as well, were expecting something a bit more..." He waggled his fingers at Jack. "Shiny. What with the island of Muerta going all pear-shaped and being claimed by the sea, and the treasure with it."

"And the royal navy chasing us all around the Atlantic." Said a crewmember called Leech. I tended to stay away from him, because he reminded me of a really nasty piece of business I knew back in Lowdown, California.

"And the hurricane." Marty the dwarf put in. I liked Marty. He was nice to me, though he didn't like to be reminded of it. His good temper towards me might have been because he ate more than the rest of the crew combined, and I was the cook, but I didn't really care.

"All in all, it seemed a long time since we did a speck of honest piratin'." Gibbs said.

I could see the wheels turning in Jack's head. "Shiny?"

"Aye. Shiny." Gibbs confirmed.

"Is that how you're all feeling then?" Jack asked. "That dear old Jack isn't serving your best interests as captain? Stop hiding Verne!"

I peeked out from behind the mast and grinned sheepishly. I had seen the dangerous glint in Jack's eye and had decided to take cover, but "dear old Jack" was having none of it.

"Rawkk! Walk the plank!" Cotton's parrot squawked, and Cotton grabbed it's beak to shut it up.

Jack spun around and pointed his pistol at the bird. "What did the bird say?" He demanded.

"Cool it Jack!" I said. "This isn't a mutiny, we just wanna know what you got."

"The girl is right. Show us what is on that piece of cloth there." Leech said. That was another reason why I didn't like him. He had known my name for six months and still refused to call me anything other than "the girl". But at least he wasn't calling me "Verne", since I only allowed those I consider family to call me that.

I knew what was coming next, but I still let out a yelp of surprise when Jack the un-dead monkey dropped down and stole the piece of cloth from the Captain. Jack tried to shoot the monkey, but his pistol mis-fired, so he grabbed another one that actually worked.

"You know that does no good." Gibbs said.

"Does me." Jack grunted.

"Isn't that the same pistol you shot Barbosa with?" I asked.

"Shut up Verne!" Jack snapped. I heard that a lot.

Marty had run over and picked up the piece of cloth. He held it up for all to see. "It's a key." He said, his brows furrowed in confusion.

"No." Jack took the cloth from him. "Much more better. It is a drawing of a key." This had always been Tom and I's favorite scene, because he pronounces drawing "drawer-ing", which is fun to say. "Gentlemen..." Jack began, and I chose not to point out that I was a girl. "What do keys do?"

"Keys... unlock... things?" Leech asked, as if not sure if his answer was the correct one.

"Ah. And whatever this key unlocks, inside there must be something valuble." Gibbs said, sounding like a kid whose finally understood a math equation. "So we're setting out to find whatever this key unlocks."

"No." Jack and I said in unison. Jack raised his eyebrow at me before continuing. "If we don't have the key, then we can't open whatever-it-is-we-don't-have that it unlocks. So what purpose would be served in finding whatever need be unlocked, which we don't have, without first having found the key what unlocks it?"

"Speak English!" I snapped. I was ignored, of course. I wished Tom had stayed on board, because he was the only one who spoke the same language as I did.

"So we're going after this key!" Gibbs said triumphantly, only for his smile to fall away when Jack told him he wasn't making any sense at all.

"Any more questions?" Jack asked, sounding like Mr. Iovino, my science teacher.

"Soooo..." Marty said, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Do we have a heading?"

"It's always good to have a heading." I agreed.

"Ah!" Jack said, as if that were the first sensible question he had heard all night. Probably was, too. "Set sail in a... general... that way direction!" I peeked around Jack's arm to see the compass's needle spinning erratically, and my heart leaped at the thought that I would soon see Lawrence again. Then it leaped into my throat when I realized that I would also soon be meeting the Krakken.

I saw that most of the other crewmembers had left to get back to work, and I went to join Marty and Gibbs at the rail. After Tom and Anna-Maria had left, they had become my best friends on the ship. They both looked worried, and I knew it was about Jack.

"Have you noticed lately?" Marty asked us. "The captain seems to be acting a bit strange...er."

"Marty's right." I said. "Jack's always been a bit weird, but now..." I shook my head, as if I didn't know what to make of it.

"Setting sail without knowin' his own headin'?" Gibbs agreed. "Somethin's got Jack vexed. And mark my words, what bodes ill for Jack Sparrow, bodes ill for us all." I love that line!

Without another word, the three of us pushed away from the rail and scattered to our own stations


	2. Lawrence in Port Royal

- Lawrence.

Good day. My name is Lawrence Martin. For those of you who do not know me, I was formerly apprenticed to a baker by the name of George Somber, but have since taken to fishing on the docks and selling my catch to pay for my food. I am a friend of both Miss Elizabeth Swann and Mr. William Turner, despite the fact that I struck the latter in anger during our adventure last year. Will has been kind enough to allow me to sleep in the loft above his blacksmith's shop, and he taught me how to sword-fight, though I'm afraid that I am very poor at it.

Then soldiers had burst into the shop, and I had been arrested. I had been dragged to a cell, where Will and Elizabeth joined me a few hours later. They were both dressed in wedding attire. I was going to be their ring-bearer, but had not yet dressed for the wedding when I was arrested.

"Why are they arresting us?" I asked. "I thought Governor Swann granted us clemency?"

"Lord Beckett outranks the governor." Will said bitterly. "And he decided that we needed to be arrested."

"Well, this is just peachy." I said sarcastically.

"How does this have anything to do with peaches?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, no. Peachy is a term I learned from Laverne." I explained. "It means "great", and is generally used sarcastically." I chuckled. "Laverne is probably safer than we are at the moment, even if she is on a pirate ship."

All three of us sat in gloomy silence for a time. I thought about how Laverne would feel when I didn't show up for our rendezvous in one month's time. 'She'll probably think that I abandoned her.' I thought sadly. 'Either that, or she'll know I'm dead and go mad with grief."

With these unhappy thoughts in my head, I fell asleep against the dirty wall of the cell.

* * *

The next day, I awakened to the sound of the cell door screeching open.

"Lord Beckett wishes to speak to Mr. Turner and Mr. Martin." The guard said.

We were led into a very fancy room with an unfinished map covering most of one wall. Lord Beckett was talking with another man, but dismissed him when the guard announced us.

"Those won't be necessary." Beckett said, motioning for the guards to remove our shackles. He poured three glasses of some liquer that was too fancy for me to even know the name of, and offered one to each of us. Remembering my drunkard Uncle Ian, whose memory had kept me from even tasting rum back on Jack's Island, I refused the high-class drink. "The East India Trading Company has need of your services." Beckett told us. "We wish for you to be our agents in a business transaction with our mutual friend, Captain Sparrow."

"More aquantence than friend." Will said stiffly.

"He's my friend." I piped up. "I know when denial does me no good. How do you know him?"

"We've had dealings in the past." Beckett said cryptically. He lifted a P-shaped branding iron from the fire. "And we've each left our mark on the other."

"What mark did he leave on you?" Will asked doubtfully.

Beckett didn't answer. Instead, he put the branding iron back in the fire and turned around. "By your efforts, Jack Sparrow was set free. I would like you two to go to him and recover a certain property in his possession."

"Recover." Will repeated.

"At the point of a sword?" I asked, not wanting to hurt my piratical friend.

"Bargain." Beckett said, as if it had been obvious. He moved to a box that bore the seal of the East India Trading Company on its lid and opened it, pulling out a leather-wrapped package. "Letters of mark. You will offer what amounts to a full pardon. Jack will be free. A privateer in the employ of England."

I had to keep myself from snorting rudely. Jack was a pirate! His ship gave him the freedom to go wherever he pleased, whenever he pleased. Being tied down to the employ of just one country would be imprisonment, not freedom.

"Somehow I don't think that Jack will consider employment the same as being free." Will said, voicing my thoughts in more polite terms.

Beckett chuckled. "Freedom." He muttered. He led us out onto a balcony, where we could see Port Royal's new clock tower being built. "Jack Sparrow is a dying breed." He said. "The world is shrinking, the blank edges of the map filled in. Jack must find his place in the new world or perish." He turned to Will. "Not unlike you Mr. Turner. You, your friend and your fiancee all face the hangman's noose."

"So you get Jack and the _Black Pearl_?" Will said.

"The _Black Pearl_?" Beckett sounded puzzled.

"I don't think he wants the _Pearl_, Will." I said.

"A ship? Hardly." Beckett chuckled. "The item in question is considerably smaller, and far more valuable."

"Wait, are you talking about that compass he always carries around?" I asked, and both Will and Beckett turned to stare at me.

"How do you know that?" Beckett asked.

"It's the only thing he has that seems to have any value, besides the _Pearl_, so I knew that must be what you're talking about." I said, nervous at being the center of attention.

"And you were right, Mr. Martin." Beckett said. "Bring back that compass, or there's no deal."

Will looked pained, but I nodded willingly. Laverne was on the _Black Pearl_,and finding Jack gave me a reason to keep our rendezvous.


	3. Bootstrap Bill

- Laverne.

When I joined the crew of Black Pearl, Anna-Maria and I shared a small "cabin" that obviously used to be a storage closet. Now I have it to myself, but tonight I crept out to sleep on deck. If you've never slept on the deck of a ship, then you are lucky. It's fine for star or ocean-gazing but sleeping is a whole other matter. You can't move around to keep warm when you're attempting to get some sleep, and when you stay in one place too long the fog soaks you to the bone. However, tonight was different. Tonight, was the night Jack had a talk with Bootstrap Bill Turner and became a marked man.

Finally, I saw Jack stagger out of his cabin, obviously drunk as usual, and I got up when he headed for the stairs that led to the hold. He startled when I tapped him on the shoulder, and spun around to glare at me.

"Verne! What are you doing up at this hour? Your not on watch duty." He whispered at me. I didn't see why he was trying to be quiet; it would take him shouting at the top of his lungs to wake his men up later.

"I saw you come out of your cabin." I said. "Thought you might like some company. Not that kind of company!" I cut off his sly look before it could begin. "I meant it might be best if someone went down into the hold with you. Who knows, there might be a boogyman down there."

"What, pray, is a boogyman?" Jack asked derisively.

"It's what people in my hometown call any sort of unknown monster that waits in the shadows to drag you to your doom." I said, in my best ghost story voice.

Jack raised one finger drunkenly. "You've been spending far too much time with Mr. Gibbs, luv." He said, before continuing down the stairs.

I rolled my eyes and followed him. I was pretty sure that Bootstrap wouldn't show up until Jack was alone, but if I stayed by the door then he might still come. It was sort of like the creepy version of hiding behind the christmas tree to wait for Santa.

"You coming Verne?" Jack asked.

"No way. That place gives me the creeps." I said. It was the truth, too. The place was dark and filled with creepy sounds. I wouldn't go in there if my life depended on it.

Jack shrugged. By now he had heard me use that phrase enough that he knew what it meant, and even used it himself sometimes. Pushing open the door, he went in in search of rum. I poked my head through the doorway, but was already so creeped out by the darkness and wierd noises that when I heard Bootstrap address Jack, I ducked back out and sat in dark outside. The door was still open, so I could still here what was said, but I twitched every time an unearthly groan resounded in the hollow space.

I was just about to jump up and run back to the relative safety of the crew quarters, when Jack came through the door in a mad rush and tripped over outstretched legs. Scrambling to his feet, he continued on without even asking if I was all right.

"On deck all hands!" He hollered as we raced up the stairs. The crew tumbled out of their hammocks, except for Marty who was too short to reach a hammock, and ran after him onto the deck.

The deck was in complete chaos. Jack didn't even seem to notice that I was dogging his heels, he was so busy shouting out orders. "Run and keep running!" He shouted. "Run like the very devil himself, or itself, were upon us!" He hid behind the mast and wrapped a rag around his left hand.

"Jack!" I said, making him actually scream with fright.

"Do we have a heading?" Gibbs asked, poking his head around the mast, and Jack screamed again.

"Run! Land!" He said. He didn't even give me his "if you ever do that again, I'll send you up to the crow's nest" warning. It was the only viable threat he had on me, since I was scared of heights, and he sometimes made good on that threat.

"Which port?" Gibbs asked. He sounded confused, but you got used to being out of the loop when Jack Sparrow is your captain.

"He didn't say "port", he said "land". Any land!" I said, getting a vigorous nod of agreement from Jack.

Jack and I both yelped in alarm as Jack the monkey swooped down and stole Captain Jack's hat. Monkey Jack screeched at Captain Jack, who hissed back at him. MJ tossed the hat overboard, and I groaned. The captain was very, very attached to that hat, and made us turn around to get it whenever it fell overboard. Which was why it was such a shock when Jack told us to leave it behind.

"Run." He said, before making a dash for his cabin. I followed him, and found him pressed up against the wall beneath the stairs that led to the helm.

"Jack?" I asked. "You don't have to be so twitchy. I'm pretty sure your hat will keep the Krakken for a little while."

"SSSSH!" Jack grabbed my arm and pulled me alongside him. "How did you know about that?"

"I was right there at the door, remember?"

"Oh. Right. What makes you think that about the hat?"

"Well, Bootstrap said that the giant beastie is drawn to you. So, I'm thinking it works the same as a hound dog on a hunting trip."

"And why would a hat draw it off?"

"Not just any hat, Jack. **Your **hat. It bears your scent. I just pity the poor suckers who find it."

"Jack?" We both hissed at Gibbs to be quiet. "For the love of mother and child, Jack, what's coming after us?" Gibbs asked, in a stage whisper.

"Nothing." Jack said, and ducked into his cabin while I rolled my eyes.

"What do you know about all this, Miss Audrium?" Gibbs asked. I only got called "Miss Audrium" when I was in trouble.

"Nothing." I said, and ducked into Jack's cabin the same way he had.


	4. Finding Jack Sparrow

- Lawrence.

While Will and Governor Swann went to tell Elizabeth the news, I was charged with finding us passage to Tortuga. It was actually quite easy, since many of the less honest "honest" captains were regulars of that sin-hole. I found us a captain who actually reminded me of Jack, and might have been a relative of his, by the name of Captain Ian Elberdon. He captained a rickety barge called the _Sunset_.

We didn't stay with Captain Elberdon for very long, because Jack was not in Tortuga, and we had to keep searching. We followed one rumour after another, from Tortuga to Singapore to Jamaica, and I was getting nervous. The rendezvous was in one week, and I was deeply worried that I would miss it. Then we met a fisherman who said that he saw the _Black Pearl _on an island where they trade for spices for long pork.

One week later, Will and I were being rowed out to the island by the fisherman's brother. The _Black Pearl _could clearly be seen on the beach, and my entire body was numb with excitement at the thought that I would see Laverne again. However if I had known what awaited us on the island, I would have saved my energy. About two-thirds of the way to the island, our guide stopped rowing. When we asked him why, he only spoke French, but we got the message that we would have to swim from here.

We stumbled up onto the beach where the _Pearl_ was moored. Our clothes and shoes were gritty with sand and seawater, and we were soaked from head to toe.

"Jack?" Will shouted. "Jack Sparrow?"

"Verne!" I joined in. "Verne, where are you?"

"Marty? Cotton?" He stopped shouting when he realized he wasn't going to get an answer. "Anyone?"

My heart sank when I, too, got no answer. Where was everyone?

We wandered into the jungle, though the place gave me a chill of foreboding. The plants were invasive, and distracting, causing me to lose track of Will.

"Will?" I called out, and screamed in alarm when he suddenly appeared beside me, having merely been blocked from view by a large fern. "Don't do that!" I gasped.

"Sorry." Will showed me a small, brown object. It was Mr. Gibbs' liqueur bottle. "Look what I found. This was attached to it." He held up a thin, green vine that led off into the undergrowth. He began to follow it, but I held him back.

"Will, I don't think we should follow it." I said urgently. "When I visited my Uncle John back in England, he used something similar to lure pigs into the slaughter house."

"It might lead us to Gibbs, who can lead us to Jack." Will said stubbornly. A crafty look came across his face. It didn't look right on his normally honest features. "It also might lead to Laverne."

I shook my head. I may have been aching to see my love again, but I wasn't willing to walk into a possible trap because she _might_ be there. "Sorry, Will. If you're willing to ignore common sense and follow that vine, be my guest. But you're on your own."

"Fine." Will glared at me before heading off into the underbrush with the vine held loosely in his hands. A second later, I heard him scream. Before I could take a step, however, something pierced my neck and I blacked out.

* * *

I awoke in a very uncomfortable position that consisted of having your wrists and ankles tied to a long pole. That pole was being carried by two scantily-clad young men with painted bodies and jewelery made from bones. Will was being carried along in the same way just ahead of me. We were paraded through a village filled with people similarly dressed to our carriers.

When we crossed a wooden bridge, and came into a wooden clearing, my mouth dropped. There, seated on a wooden throne decorated with bones, was Jack Sparrow! He wore the most hideous make-up I had ever seen. His eyelids were both painted so that it looked like his eyes were open, even when they were not; he had more eyes painted down his cheeks and his nose was green. Will, of course, chose this moment to wake up.

"Jack?" He said. "Jack Sparrow? I can honestly say I'm glad to see you." He was laughing, but by the way Jack did not return his greeting I didn't think he would be laughing for long.

The pirate captain came over and prodded Will's shoulder the way I had seen Uncle John feel a cow. I groaned, catching Jack's attention.

"Either this is all a show to save your skin, or you've really turned native." I told him. "I really hope it's the former."

Jack ignored me and began speaking gibberish to one of the tribesmen, though some of the words were merely English with "icky" added on to the end. At least that meant that he hadn't turned native, but I could tell when he basically called Will an Eunuch, that he wasn't going to help us. I spotted the compass hanging from Jack belt as he walked away and opened my mouth to say something, but Will beat me to it.

"Jack! The compass!" He exclaimed, and Jack stopped short. "That's all I need. Elizabeth is in danger. We were arrested for helping you. She faces the gallows!"

Jack spun around and went to the tribesman he had spoken to before and spouted more gibberish at him. When the natives merely gave him blank looks, he made "shoo" motions with his hands. "Maliki-liki." He said. It seemed to be the first word that the natives understood, because they shouted it and began to take us away. "Save me." Jack whispered to us before we were out of earshot. Will, of course, became very upset that Jack had not helped us in the way we had expected. I swear, that boy has absolutely no patience.

We were taken to a high cliff where the natives hauled up a circular cage made of bones. I think I surprised the natives by actually climbing in on my own when I saw Laverne was already there. Will had to be pushed in, but I wasn't paying attention to him, or the fact that we were now being lowered down again. I only had eyes for Laverne.

She certainly looked different from the last time I saw her on the docks of Port Royal. Her long, red hair had been chopped down to her ear-tips, and her face was heavily tanned. She also had a scar across her forehead that I would have to ask her about later. She seemed to be greatly uncomfortable, and I noticed that several of the crewmen were trying to stay as far from her as they could, in case she became ill.

"Are you all right Verne?" I asked, checking her over for any missing limbs.

"I'm fine. Just a bit of vertigo from being up this high." She assured me.

"Why would Jack do this to us?" Will asked, ignoring our reunion. "If Jack is the chief..."

"Aye! The Pentegostus made Jack their chief." Gibbs interrupted. "But he only remains chief as long as he acts like a chief."

"So he had no choice. He's a captive here as much as the rest of us." Will said. It took him long enough to figure it out.

"Actually it's worse." Laverne said. "They think Jack is a god in human form. Heaven knows he acts the part..."

"They plan to do him the honor of releasing him from his fleshy prison." Gibbs said. When Will gave him a blank look, Cotton took Gibbs' hand and bit it, causing the first mate to cry out in pain. "They'll roast him, and eat him." He finished, pulling his hand away from the mute.

"Where's the rest of the crew?" Will asked. I had been wondering that myself, but Will was so talkative that I decided to let him ask the questions.

"Well, let's see." Laverne mused, then began pointing at different bones the way you might point out constellations. "That's Trevor's foot, there's Kyle's skull, and I believe you're holding onto Sam's arm."

Will let go of the arm-bone like it was something nasty... which it was.

"The feast is about to begin." Gibbs said, as the sound of drums from the air. "Jack's life will end when the drums stop."

"Well then let's swing it!" Laverne said.

Swing it?


End file.
